Well, lap dogs do have exceptional hearing that humans just do not possess. While word is getting out that Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Ocala, Fla., today, made yet another embarrassing gaffe — calling Cleveland, Ohio’s Plain Dealer one of the major papers “in this state” — NBC’s embed team has reached its verdict, and that verdict is “not guilty.”

If you listen to the clearest audio possible, you’ll hear Biden say “the,” not “this.”

It’s nice that the mainstream media had their forensic audio team at the ready. We wouldn’t want people to mishear Ann Romney saying “you people” and have it trend for days now, would we? Hypothetically speaking, of course.